SCRIPTORIUM (Université de Moncton)
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Comparing the implementation of advanced access strategies among primary health care providers
No full textThe advanced access (AA) model is among the most recommended innovations for improving timely access in primary health care (PHC). Originally developed for physicians, it is now relevant to evaluate the model’s implementation in more interprofessional practices. We compared AA implementation among family physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses. A cross-sectional online open survey was completed by 514 PHC providers working in 35 university-affiliated clinics. Family physicians delegated tasks to other professionals in the team more often than nurse practitioners (p =.001) and nurses (p <.001). They also left a smaller proportion of their schedules open for urgent patient needs than did nurse practitioners (p =.015) and nurses (p <.001). Nurses created more alternatives to in-person visits than family physicians (p <.001) and coordinated health and social services more than family physicians (p =.003). During periods of absence, physicians referred patients to walk-in services for urgent needs significantly more often than nurses (p =.003), whereas nurses planned replacements between colleagues more often than physicians (p <.001). The variations among provider categories indicate that a one-size-fits-all implementation of AA principles is not recommended.udemauteur: Jalila Jbilo
Ecomorphological adaptations of owl feet and talons
No full textFeet and talons are the most specialized predatory attributes of raptor morphology. As such, the hindlimb morphology of owls should reflect their dietary specialization. Owls' diet varies widely between species with only a subset of owl species preying predominantly on small mammals. We hypothesize that different owl species have varied hindlimb morphology, adapted to their main prey types, and that only dietary specialists will be distinguishable based on talon morphology (e.g. toe length, talon curvature and thickness, etc.). We used a sample of 63 specimens from 15 owl species to obtain a variety of measurements of hindlimb morphology. We then used a discriminant function analysis to investigate the degree of variation between species and diet groups in terms of their morphological measurements. Our results indicate that talon morphology is linked to prey type in the owl species studied. Insect specialists and small mammal specialists were characterized by a low talon curvature, whereas generalists presented a pronounced talon curvature. Fish specialists presented particularly thick and robust talons, and insect specialists showed lower digit strength than other owl species. These findings could help determine the diet of other owl species, particularly endangered species for which data on diet is often scarce. This study will also be very useful in future studies of the ecology of sympatric species, resource partitioning between species, or between sexes of the same species, and more generally to the evolution of owls.udemauteur: Nicolas Lecomt
Vision Transformers for Lung Segmentation on CXR Images
No full textAccurate segmentation of the lungs in CXR images is the basis for an automated CXR image analysis system. It helps radiologists in detecting lung areas, subtle signs of disease and improving the diagnosis process for patients. However, precise semantic segmentation of lungs is considered a challenging case due to the presence of the edge rib cage, wide variation of lung shape, and lungs affected by diseases. In this paper, we address the problem of lung segmentation in healthy and unhealthy CXR images. Five models were developed and used in detecting and segmenting lung regions. Two loss functions and three benchmark datasets were employed to evaluate these models. Experimental results showed that the proposed models were able to extract salient global and local features from the input CXR images. The best performing model achieved an F1 score of 97.47%, outperforming recent published models. They proved their ability to separate lung regions from the rib cage and clavicle edges and segment varying lung shape depending on age and gender, as well as challenging cases of lungs affected by anomalies such as tuberculosis and the presence of nodules.udemauteur: Rafik Ghali; Moulay Akhlouf
Understanding financial professionals' perceptions of their clients' financial behaviors
No full textThis article describes financial professionals’ perceptions of their clients’ financial behaviors and the explanatory factors underlying these behaviors.
In this qualitative research, we seek to understand financial professionals’ experiences in relation to how their clients manage their own finances. We conduct and analyze 26 semi-structured interviews with financial professionals from several industries within the financial sector in Canada.
The professionals in our study noted that despite their clients’ financial knowledge, several other factors can explain these individuals’ financial behaviors. They include psychological factors, (such as financial bias, the need for instant gratification, and the lack of awareness regarding the long-term effects of certain types of financial behaviors), financial habits (such as lifestyle, financial planning, and lack of discipline), and the financial system’s flexibility with respect to debt financing and repayment. These perceptions are categorized according to whether they are related to debt financing or repayment, savings, or investments.
By using a qualitative methodology that relies on the perceptions of financial professionals, this study aims to better understand the financial behaviors of individuals and households, and these behaviors’ underlying factors. This study’s findings could be useful to various stakeholders interested, in one way or another, in financial literacy, such as organizations aiming to strengthen and promote financial literacy, educators, researchers, regulatory bodies of financial institutions, and financial advisers.udemauteur: Tania Morris; Lamine Kamano; Stéphanie Maille
Teaching Note - Creating Spaces of Courage and Hope: Cultivating the Seeds of Social Justice
No full textThis teaching note reflects on the challenges we face when attempting to cultivate the seeds of social justice in our pedagogy and our engagement toward social justice. First, we situate our vision of pedagogy in a critical lens and present challenges we encounter when trying to foster activism among students. The challenges we identify allow us to reflect critically on a framework to guide us in reimagining our pedagogy. Finally, we suggest some strategies that can be used inside and outside the classroom to foster greater engagement toward social justice among social work students.udemauteur: Isabel Lanteigne; Marie-Pier Rivest; Elda Savoie; Lise Savoi
Steaming‐Assisted Conversion: A New Strategy for the Synthesis of Anatase TiO 2 , Nb, and W‐doped Anatase TiO 2 2D Inverse Opal Films
No full textSteaming-assisted conversion route, a new strategy, is first adapted for the synthesis of highly crystallized anatase TiO2 2D inverse opal (IO) monolayer films, and then to Nb-doped TiO2 and W-doped TiO2 2D IO monolayer films. Pure water, ammonia, or HCl solutions are used as a source of steaming vapor to convert dry films of amorphous TiO2 IO, NbCl5/TiO2, and WCl6/TiO2 composite IOs into anatase TiO2, Nb-doped TiO2, and W-doped TiO2 IO films. This new strategy renders possible the doping of metal ions within the framework of the anatase TiO2 IO films under low temperature and liquid-free conditions. Further, the ordered array structure of the IO films is also effectively retained. The low steaming conversion temperature allows high dopant rates of homogeneously distributed heteroatoms, resulting in Nb doping as high as ≈34%. The thus prepared TiO2, Nb-doped TiO2, and W-doped TiO2 anatase IO films are successfully used as active electrodes in the fabrication of electrochromic devices.udemauteur: Yahia Djaoue
Linewidth Narrowing of a Dual Wavelength-Selectable, Ring Cavity Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser using a Saturable Absorber
No full textThe narrow linewidth fiber laser is useful in applications such as fiber sensing, optical communications, and spectroscopy. This paper presents an investigation of the model and an experiment of a stable, wavelength-selective, narrow linewidth, ring cavity erbium-doped fiber laser incorporating two fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) at 1530.18 nm and 1550.08 nm, respectively. An F-P tunable filter was used to select a specific wavelength after optimizing the spectral output from the two FBGs to measure their respective linewidths. The erbium-doped ring fiber laser was optimized by adjusting the optical cavity loss using a variable optical coupler at a coupling ratio of 95%. The variable coupler was set to an optimal coupling ratio of 95%, where the spectral output powers of 3.4 mW at 1530.18 nm and 3.1 mW at 1550.08 nm were achieved as the optimal fiber laser output powers. The balanced output power had an optical signal-to-noise ratio of (OSNR) of 61 dB for each wavelength. The linewidth was measured for both wavelengths without saturable absorbers, and 27.7 kHz and 28.3 kHz for 1530.18 nm and 1550.08 nm were obtained. Using the saturable absorber, the linewidths were narrowed to 25.3 KHz and 21.1 kHz for 1530.18 nm and 1550.08 nm, respectively.udemauteur: Habib Hama
Succinate oxidation rescues mitochondrial ATP synthesis at high temperature in Drosophila melanogaster
No full textDecreased NADH-induced and increased reduced FADH2-induced respiration rates at high temperatures are associated with thermal tolerance in Drosophila. Here, we determined whether this change was associated with adjustments of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production rate and coupling efficiency (ATP/O) in Drosophila melanogaster. We show that decreased pyruvate + malate oxidation at 35°C is associated with a collapse of ATP synthesis and a drop in ATP/O ratio. However, adding succinate triggered a full compensation of both oxygen consumption and ATP synthesis rates at this high temperature. Addition of glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) led to a huge increase in respiration with no further advantage in terms of ATP production. We conclude that succinate is the only alternative substrate able to compensate both oxygen consumption and ATP production rates during oxidative phosphorylation at high temperature, which has important implications for thermal adaptation.udemauteur: Nicolas Pichau
Determination of mycotoxins in nuts, cereals, legumes, and coffee beans and effectiveness of a selenium‐based decontamination treatment
No full textLiquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for the rapid quantification of multiple mycotoxins, specifically aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON), and zearalenone (ZEN), in walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, coffee beans, rice, and chickpeas from various countries. Total counts of fungi, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus parasiticus were also assessed, along with the effectiveness of a decontamination treatment with inorganic selenium to reduce mycotoxin levels. Of the 78 samples tested, 69% were contaminated with mycotoxins. ZEN, the predominant mycotoxin contaminant, was detected in all the contaminated samples in concentrations often exceeding the maximum level, followed by AFG1 (28% of the contaminated samples), DON (22%), AFG2 (11%), and AFB1 (5.5%). The occurrence of aflatoxins was associated with high proportions of A. flavus and A. parasiticus. Complete removal of AFB1 from walnuts and DON from roasted coffee beans was achieved by treatment with aqueous selenium, while the levels of ZEN and AFG1 were respectively lowered by 65% to 89% depending on the commodity and by about 56% in roasted coffee beans. While this novel treatment is a promising approach for mycotoxin decontamination, it is not intended to replace safe practices upstream.udemauteur: Carole Tranchan
A chiral microchip laser using anisotropic grating mirrors for single mode emission
No full textA pair of nanostructured mirrors made of a diffraction grating inscribed in the top layer of a Bragg mirror are designed such that a phase shift near πand different reflected amplitudes exist between transverse electric (TE) and magnetic (TM) reflected polarization states at normal incidence. When a standing wave laser resonator is formed with two such mirrors and the two mirrors' principal axes are twisted one with respect to the other, this phase shift condition suppresses multiple longitudinal mode emission arising from axial spatial hole burning. In addition, the different amplitudes of TE and TM reflected polarizations create polarization eigenstates with different round-trip losses, suppressing one polarization eigenstate. Laser experiments made with a Yb3+-doped Y3Al5O12 active material reveal enhanced purity of the emission spectrum compared to similar lasers using conventional laser mirrors. The proposed design enables a miniature single mode laser, replacing more complex designs usually needed to achieve that goal.udemauteur: Jean-François Bisso